President's visit is nod to TN education

OUR VIEW

Today, President Barack Obama makes his first visit to Nashville since 2008, when he was presidential nominee Obama debating Republican contender John McCain on the campus of Belmont University.

While reports suggest security and scheduling constraints will make the chief executive's visit brief, it is significant that the president has chosen to make Middle Tennessee one of his first stops after his State of the Union address - and that the setting will be McGavock, a public high school in a state that has seen its educational fortunes change dramatically.

The overriding message of Mr. Obama's State of the Union was income inequality, and Tennessee certainly has its share of that, but the key drivers of Tennesseans' lower-than-average per capita income and high levels of social assistance are inadequate levels of education and lack of incentives to graduate. What the president is expected to talk about today is how a good education can be a great equalizer.

The energy and enthusiasm surrounding education in Tennessee have been growing for a few years now, since national yardsticks warned that the state's schools were harboring a misconception that students were performing better than they actually were. That led Gov. Phil Bredesen and his successor, Bill Haslam, to make education reform their priority, with the added incentive of a half-billion dollars in "Race to the Top" funds from the federal government to make it all happen.

President Obama's presence here today is in part a recognition of the hard work that state leaders, educators and students throughout Tennessee have put in to reverse their fortunes.

By the way, for the president to make a favorable example of a school system in your state - for the rest of the country to see - is a good thing. The negative spin that has been leveled by some in advance of Mr. Obama's arrival is deplorable, even if a majority of Tennessee voters do not approve of his performance. Simple courtesy should be expected, just as Tennesseans were hospitable to Presidents Bush and Kennedy when they came to Nashville.

President Obama's visit is a strong acknowledgment that the people of this state can show others how to make education shape a better future.

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President's visit is nod to TN education

It is significant that the president has chosen to make Middle Tennessee one of his first stops after his State of the Union address ? and that the setting will be McGavock, a public high school in a